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Novartis StoriesenPotential weight loss treatment takes shape with help from patientshttps://www.novartis.com/stories/discovery/potential-weight-loss-treatment-takes-shape-help-from-patients
<p>James Zervios grew up in a time when schoolyard bullying was met with a shrug. Teased for his weight and picked last for sports teams, Zervios sought solace at the end of the day in the comforts of home. In his Italian and Greek household, comfort was often in the form of food. His family celebrated every life event with an Italian feast and gathered each Sunday for a four-course family dinner, so food was not only plentiful – it felt like a reaffirming embrace.</p><p>It wasn’t until later that Zervios realized that comfort came at the expense of his health. The pounds accumulated over the ...</p>Mon, 05 Feb 2018 18:38:49 +0100Veronica Meade-Kelly86991Partnering for improved cancer care around the globehttps://www.novartis.com/stories/access-healthcare/partnering-improved-cancer-care-around-globe
<p>“A medicine is only as good as the system that delivers it,” said Dr. Harald Nusser, Head of Novartis Social Business, when <a href="https://www.novartis.com/news/media-releases/novartis-ascp-and-acs-join-forces-fight-cancer-ethiopia-uganda-and-tanzania">Novartis joined forces</a> with the American Society for Clinical Pathology and the American Cancer Society in 2017 to fight cancer, including breast cancer, in Africa. </p><p>Approximately 650 000 people develop cancer annually in Africa, and about 510 000 cancer deaths happen each year as a consequence of lack of access to treatment, as ...</p>Wed, 31 Jan 2018 16:29:34 +010086941Compound designed to fight Alzheimer’s disease shows promise in the labhttps://www.novartis.com/stories/discovery/compound-designed-fight-alzheimers-disease-shows-promise-lab
<p>The year was 1906, and German physician Alois Alzheimer was examining the brain of a patient who had died after a battle with progressive dementia. The woman had experienced memory loss and other psychological changes. Alzheimer noticed the accumulation of a peculiar substance in the cortex, the first observation of what would later be called amyloid plaques.</p><p>Fast forward more than 100 years and many researchers still suspect that such plaques play a role in driving the disease named after the German physician, but they haven’t been able to prove it. Companies, including Novartis, ...</p>Mon, 29 Jan 2018 19:41:47 +0100Alyssa Kneller86886Tracking patients’ progress with radio signals and machine learninghttps://www.novartis.com/stories/discovery/tracking-patients-progress-radio-signals-and-machine-learning
<p>In 2016, Jason Laramie attended a talk at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) about a device that can see through walls. It can detect people, track their movement and breathing, and even see their hearts beating.</p><p>Laramie, an Executive Director in Translational Medicine at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), was taken aback. He wasn’t alone. “An audible buzz rippled through the auditorium when they showed a person’s heartbeat detected wirelessly from across the room,” he says.</p><p>Laramie saw a potential for the technology to be used in clinical ...</p>Mon, 29 Jan 2018 05:47:41 +0100Elizabeth Dougherty86866Organic dealmaker for drug discoveryhttps://www.novartis.com/stories/discovery/organic-dealmaker-drug-discovery
<p>In school, chemistry entranced Prakash Raman. But it was the tailoring of molecules – analyzing their structures and making strategic additions in select places – that he enjoyed most. The work was not only fascinating, but purposeful. Chemistry gave him the power to make medicine.</p><p>“I couldn’t believe that as a chemist, I could make a difference by finding new drugs for patients,” he says.</p><p>Raman, who is now Global Head of Business Development and Licensing at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), has ended up far from the chemistry lab, but the challenges he ...</p>Wed, 20 Dec 2017 18:39:29 +0100Elizabeth Dougherty86406Open science demystifiedhttps://www.novartis.com/stories/discovery/open-science-demystified
<p>Before joining Novartis, Jay Bradner was a cancer researcher and pioneer of the growing trend toward open scientific innovation. He believes that in science, more minds are better. The more people working on tough scientific puzzles, the more likely they will be to find solutions. </p><p>Now, as President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), he is applying this mindset to accelerate the process of drug discovery and development, an effort that takes good ideas from the lab and translates them into safe and effective medicines that fight disease. </p><p>Over the past ...</p>Wed, 20 Dec 2017 16:46:46 +0100Elizabeth Dougherty86401Pioneering business approach expands healthcare in Indian villageshttps://www.novartis.com/stories/access-healthcare/pioneering-business-approach-expands-healthcare-indian-villages
<p>On a muggy Thursday in July, Chankey Kumar awoke early, as usual, in the two-bedroom home he, his wife and their infant son share with his parents, aunt, uncle, and two young cousins. He slipped on a blue collared shirt and dress pants — a formality that is unusual where he lives in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Meerut, India, a city several hours north of New Delhi.</p><p></p><div class="media media-element-container media-default media-align-center"> ...</div>Wed, 06 Dec 2017 11:30:42 +010086351Researchers overcome hurdles to test experimental malaria drughttps://www.novartis.com/stories/discovery/researchers-overcome-hurdles-test-experimental-malaria-drug
<p>Dr. Bakary Fofana and two colleagues sit at a desk in a health clinic and research lab in southern Mali, writing an email to their collaborators in the United States. Two pre-labeled test tubes for patient blood samples broke during the three-week transit from the US to Mali.</p><p>Dr. Fofana has plenty of extra test tubes lying around, but the broken tubes are unique to the clinical trial of an experimental new malaria treatment he is helping conduct. They arrive from the US labeled and numbered, pre-registered in an online database. </p><p>Until Dr. Fofana agrees on a solution with the ...</p>Mon, 04 Dec 2017 08:52:32 +010086336Women in Science: Shilpa Shah-Mehtahttps://www.novartis.com/stories/discovery/women-science-shilpa-shah-mehta
<p></p><div class="media media-element-container media-default right-offset"><img alt="Shilpa Shah-Mehta, Executive Product Director, Hematology Franchises" title="Shilpa Shah-Mehta, Executive Product Director, Hematology Franchises" style="width:290px;height:263px" class="media-element file-default" delta="1" src="https://www.novartis.com/sites/www.novartis.com/files/field/image/women-in-science-shilpa-shah-mehta-image.png" width="290" height="263" /><br /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><p>At ...</p>Wed, 15 Nov 2017 12:53:16 +010086111Small viruses could accelerate cell and gene therapy researchhttps://www.novartis.com/stories/discovery/small-viruses-could-accelerate-cell-and-gene-therapy-research
<p>Interest in the field of genome editing continues to heat up, fueled by technological advances and the first approval of a gene therapy in the United States. The latest development in this exciting frontier of science involves small viruses called AAVs (short for adeno-associated viruses) that have the power to overwrite DNA in human cells. </p><p>“AAV biology is one of the most febrile areas of basic research, and we’re planning to explore its therapeutic potential through a new collaboration,” says Craig Mickanin, who focuses on new tools and technologies as a director at the Novartis ...</p>Mon, 13 Nov 2017 14:04:42 +0100Alyssa Kneller86026